Through the Jungle, Through the Dark
by weasleytook
Summary: Takes place after "The X in the File". Angela has Sweets' voice ringing through her head and has to do something about it. Written for a help haiti prompt, based off the song Home by Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros


Lance Sweets was a dead man. Or at least if Angela had her way, he would be. She had been working at the Jeffersonian long enough to think she could get away with it too. She had seen where other murderers had failed. Maybe she could commit the perfect crime.

She had finally been happy again. Or at least she thought so. What she did know was that she hadn't felt this happy since before she split up with Hodgins. Wendell was sweet, funny and loyal. He was everything she thought she wanted. Then the boy genius had to open his big mouth and ruin everything.

His words from the day in the diner had stayed in her ears for weeks afterwards.

_Everything's not fine._

She kept telling herself how happy she was, but she knew Sweets' track record and he was usually right. So one afternoon she yanked him into her work area and cornered him.

"Well… explain yourself."

"Angela, I'm confused... you're the one that dragged me in here."

"You. You said things were not fine."

Sweets nodded in understanding and leaned against the wall. "Because it's not. I'm right, aren't I?"

Angela sat down in the nearest chair and put her face in her hands. She sighed loudly and took her hands away before looking back up at Sweets.

"Yes, you're right. And don't you dare do that self-satisfied smiling thing that you do when you're right."

"What? I don't do -", but he could hardly contain himself, a smile creeping up on his lips.

"I'm serious, Sweets. I will end you."

"Sorry."

"How do you always know everything?"

"I'm a psychoanalytic psychologist, professional profiler and Agent Booth once called me a portable polygraph. I know when people I've never met are lying, so of course I know when my friends are too. You want Hodgins back, don't you?"

Sweets sat in the chair across from her and Angela frowned as she thought about it. "Looking back, I don't even know why we broke up. It was stupid. And he probably wouldn't take me back now, not in a million years... "

"You don't know that."

Angela narrowed her eyes and grinned mischievously. "But I bet you do. Don't you?"

Sweets huffed a little and averted his eyes. "Even if I did know something, I could never tell you."

"Doctor patient privilege thing?"

He looked back at her and smiled. "Friend privilege. It's a lot more important. So... what about Wendell?"

"Wendell dumped me. Apparently, he has some of those psychoanalytic powers that you have. He told me that I could never love him, because I love Hodgins."

"What are you going to do?"

Angela shifted in her chair and laughed softly. "I was thinking of not doing anything. That way every day at work with both Hodgins and Wendell will be as awkward as possible."

Sweets laughed with her and nodded. "Good plan."

That conversation was three weeks ago and true to her word, she hadn't done a thing. The good news was that Wendell was acting like nothing had ever happened and there was no awkwardness between them. The bad news was that Angela could barely be in the same room with Hodgins without feeling like a complete fool.

On this night, she was stuck at work perfecting some computer simulations of a crime for their latest case. She had been hunched up behind the computer for hours and was starting to feel the pain in her back. It was dark outside her work room, but she decided to use this opportunity to take a break.

She stood and stretched, yawning as she tried to loosen up her sore muscles. Walking out into the main floor of the lab, she was surprised to see one corner still lit up.

"Hello?"

A familiar voice called from across the big cold room. "Angela?"

Angela walked towards him and found that he had his computer workstation lit up like a Christmas tree.

"What are you doing here? I thought everyone left."

"Still trying to nail down the analysis on those paint flecks we found in the victim's skull."

Angela sat down in the chair next to his and looked at his work for a moment. He was a scientist, she was an artist. But there was still an art to what he did, and a science to her art. It seemed to fit.

She flashed on a mental image of her strangling Sweets. Sure, he was taller than her, but she was surprisingly scrappy. Angela thought she could take him. That would be his punishment for always being right.

"Hey, remember that weekend we went to Vermont?"

Hodgins grinned at her, a spark flashing in his blue eyes. "How could I forget?"

Angela tried to take a deep breath but it caught in her throat. "That was the weekend I realized I'd love you for the rest of my life."

The spark faded from his eyes and his lips made a straight line again. "Well, that worked out, didn't it?"

"No, it's still true. No matter what has happened, I haven't once stopped loving you."

His eyebrows raised in confusion. "Ange... what brought this on?"

Angela flashed on another image of her bludgeoning Sweets with a microscope. Maybe that would be better.

"I just... I wanted to apologize. For everything. I don't think I ever properly did that and I should have. You've been wonderful, and I was a jerk."

Hodgins took her hand in his and shook his head. "No, you're not a jerk."

She weaved her fingers through his and gave him a soft smile. "Hodgins... I want to go home."

He looked at her with another look of confusion. "Do you need me to walk you to your car or something?"

Angela chuckled softly and shook her head. "That's not what I meant. Home is wherever I'm with you."

Hodgins leaned in towards her and the fingers of his other hand sifted through the brown waves of her hair. "Angela... this isn't some sort of relapse that you're going to regret later? Or God forbid a rebound from your breakup with Wendell?"

"Jack... I love you, and if you haven't gotten completely over me yet, I'd like to..."

"I've never gotten over you. Never wanted to."

Her face softened and she leaned in to crush her lips to his. If a kiss could speak, this one said it all. Maybe they just hadn't been ready for this before, but they were ready for it now. They had somehow ended up where they should have been all along.

She broke off for air and pressed her forehead to his, both of them smiling widely.

"Ange..."

"Hmm?"

"Let's go home..."


End file.
